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Beautiful & Useful Craft Fair 2021

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful" - William Morris

Every year the Beautiful & Useful Craft Fair at the Garden Museum offers a unique and inspiring Christmas shopping experience. Now in its fourth year, the annual craft fair is returning with a carefully curated selection of artists, designers and makers, so shoppers can support small businesses, meet the makers and give something artisan, handcrafted and a little bit special this Christmas.

Gifts to discover will include hand-thrown clay homewares by Robyn Hardyman and Naked Clay Ceramics; hand-printed organic linen, cotton and cork purses and planters by Loop; Theo Wright’s woven textiles inspired by mathematics; covetable illustrated ceramics by Helen Beard; and tactile hand-turned wooden bowls and vases by Bird & Branch Turnery Co.

Tickets are £6 each or free for Garden Museum Friends, and include entrance to the Museum’s collections (usually £12) and the Dan Pearson-designed courtyard garden. The award-winning Garden Café led by Head Chef George Ryle will also be open serving seasonal lunch, drinks and freshly-baked treats.

Stalls

  • Anne Tomlin

    Anne Tomlin

    Each unique Anne Tomlin creation is lovingly hand-made, using a combination of age-old techniques, together with methods she has developed over the many years spent as a milliner and flower-maker.

    Anne has been fascinated by the natural world for as long as she can remember; childhood walks in the countryside with her father, who helped put names to the curious plants and insects they found.

    Still in awe of the intricacies of the natural world, and inspired by the couture-quality and craftsmanship associated with the great designers and makers, including Christian Dior and Elsa Schiaparelli, Anne reinterprets the flora and fauna around her, creating exquisite objects that are part adornment, part jewellery and part sculpture; valued heirlooms for years to come.

    Anne graduated from West Surrey College of Arts, with a degree in Textiles, before going on to study Millinery at The London College of Fashion. For over twenty years she designed and made hats for many of the leading stores in the UK, USA and Japan. Now, away from the hectic world of fashion, she focuses on her love of wild flowers and the insects that visit them.

  • Bird & Branch Turnery Co

    Bird & Branch Turnery Co

    High quality homewares handmade in London. Our current range includes wooden bowls, dishes and candle holders.

    We combine the traditional technique of woodturning with a modern design language. Unlike normal commercial production, every Bird & Branch creation is hand made from a single piece of solid wood. This approach ensures continuity of grain and a direct visual connection with the tree from which it came. Primarily working with British hardwoods, we are proud to partner with selected timber suppliers who share our ideals when it comes to ethics and sustainability.

    Merging the clean lines of Scandinavian design with high quality timbers from Great Britain and beyond, Bird & Branch create beautiful, original pieces, with a fresh and contemporary feel.

  • Bloomsbury Revisited

    Bloomsbury Revisited

    Bloomsbury Revisited has created a range of lampshades and bases inspired by the colours and style of the Bloomsbury artists at Charleston Farmhouse. From small clip-on candle shades to large standards we have an extensive range and if we don’t have one we can make it and paint it.

  • Chrissy Silver

    Chrissy Silver

    Chrissy is a passionate gardener and potter. She works with porcelain making fine detailed lamps, pendants, wall lights and tea light holders . Chrissy also uses pieces is fine linen, lace, and lava stones. All pieces are made in season and with the freshest of foliage, making each piece unique and capturing the essence Spring , Summer and Autumn for reflexion in the darker winter months.

    The soft light emanating from translucent porcelain contrasts with the piercing light shining through where plants have been pressed to give a ghost image of the details of the plant.

  • Duck Ceramics

    Duck Ceramics

    Duck Ceramics is an independent pottery studio run by me, Alice Duck. Originally founded in a small attic room in my Bristol flat, I now make and finish each piece by hand in my Brighton studio.

    The technique I use is called slip casting. Commercially this process is used, along with machines to reproduce identical copies of one design, churning out hundreds of 'perfect' duplicates. There is something satisfying about imitating the machine - but with the ability to make every product individual.

    The moulds I design split into two pieces giving me the ability to combine different coloured porcelain clays to define the shape of pot. Each piece is made up of a minimum of three individually tinted clays that I have poured into a mould one after the other to create a skin of colour. The interior of each piece is glazed to make it water tight but the outside is left unglazed and sanded twice to give it a soft matt finish, contrasting nicely to the glossy interior.

    Simplicity and function are at the core of the work I make, each piece has been designed to be used and loved every day, whether that’s for a strong coffee to get going in the morning or a desk mate to store your favourite stationery.

  • Forget-Me-Not Originals

    Forget-Me-Not Originals

    Discover wonderful forget me not originals fabric covered vintage books and notebooks hand made by Emma using pretty vintage fabric and Liberty lawns.

  • Grain & Knot

    Grain & Knot

    The wooden goods at Grain & Knot are lovingly hand-crafted by Sophie in her home studio.

    Sophie graduated from the Manchester School of Art in 2009, and now lives and works in London. After graduating she always searched for new and exciting artistic outlets, and found a number of creative courses, to challenge herself and to get away from the constant glare of the computer screen.

    In the Summer of 2013, Sophie attended a spoon carving and bushcraft workshop in woodland in the beautiful British countryside. Inspired by the techniques learnt, she returned home the very next day with an axe, much to her family's amusement. After giving some spoons away as gifts, friends and family urged her to pursue this avenue and to create a brand for her woodworking. A few cut fingers and splinters later Grain and Knot was born.

    After completing the Prince's Trust Enterprise Scheme, Sophie is now working as a full time woodworker, and is fully supported by the Prince's Trust.

    Grain and knot was born from a love of nature, exploration and the need for purpose in creation. Beautifully tactile, fully functional wooden objects for the kitchen and home, each item is made from reclaimed, storm fallen or sustainably sourced timber.

  • Helen Beard

    Helen Beard

    Helen creates her bespoke designs in her London studio. The bespoke porcelain pots are individually thrown on a potter’s wheel then hand painted.

    This painting process for bespoke pieces is notably difficult. To create the freehand outlines, Helen has developed a unique relief-print method using paper impregnated with black ceramic stains. Colour is then added as washes which are mixed using a palette of underglaze stains. It’s a real labour of love as the larger pieces can take days or even weeks to get right, but this technique allows her to create her beautiful hand painted porcelain.

  • Jules Hogan

    Jules Hogan

    ‘Jules Hogan’ is a timeless collection of clothing and fashion accessories. Beautifully crafted using a subtle colour palette uplifted with seasonal highlights. With a commitment to quality the collection is British made using the finest fibres and finished by hand resulting in a premium piece.

  • Laura Baxter

    Laura Baxter

    Laura Baxter is an English metalsmith and jeweller. She makes contemporary silver and gold precious jewellery, silverware, wall pieces and large public art works inspired by botanical forms. Laura Baxter’s designs capture the essence and beauty found in plant life. Designs are graphic yet delicate and have a simple, timeless elegance. All of Laura Baxter’s work is handmade to order or made to commission from her workshop.

  • Loop by Lisa Jones

    Loop by Lisa Jones

    Hand printed cork and linen purses & planter bags. All of my products are made from natural fabrics and where possible from remnants.
    My prints are derived from hand drawn designs and transferred onto screens to hand print the fabrics, only ever using 'eco' water-based inks.

  • Molesworth & Bird

    Molesworth & Bird

    molesworth & bird is a small design company that has evolved from our love of seaweed and nature. We hope we have created an opportunity to bring a part of that beauty into the home.

    All our designs begin with a piece of fresh seaweed found close to our homes on the coast in Cornwall and Dorset. The identity, date and place where each has been found is noted for future reference and use on our limited edition prints.

    Each seaweed chosen for our prints has been sustainably foraged by us from along the British coastline. We are ever conscious of our environmental responsibilities and carefully avoid collecting live plants only gathering seaweeds that are washed up or floating free.

    Our seaweeds are pressed using traditional methods in specially made large wood mechanical presses. Papers and materials used in the process are biodegradable, acid free, and recyclable . We use a local printer for our prints who shares our strong environmental beliefs and are members of ‘Woodland Carbon’ a scheme to help remove carbon emissions by UK tree planting.

    We are proud to be a Company Member of the Marine Conservation Society - the uk based charity with a goal to “Recover the health of the ocean, for the sake of our wildlife, our climate and our own well-being”.

  • Naked Clay Ceramics

    Naked Clay Ceramics

    Inspired by the natural colours and textures of the earth, Naked Clay Ceramics is a collection of quiet, tactile, minimal style tableware and homeware in black stoneware and white porcelain.

    Using a combination of handbuilding and slip casting, everything is made by hand in my studio in Bedfordshire.

    At high temperatures the clay dances in the kiln. When they leave the kiln these pieces don’t conform to the symmetrical perfection and uniformity found in factory made items. Each is individual and unique.

    The pieces are fired with no glaze on the outside so that the feel of the natural, fired clay can be appreciated. I hope that tactile connection brings an opportunity to pause, breathe and savour a small moment in the hustle and bustle of life.

  • Robyn Hardyman

    Robyn Hardyman

    I throw my vessels on the wheel in my garden studio in Oxford. I make with porcelain, for its delicacy and strength, and the pure surface it offers for a glaze. My pieces are thrown thinly, and while their forms are often inspired by classic oriental ceramics they have a contemporary quality of their own. I appreciate the subtle beauty in simplicity and an attention to every detail.

    I relish exploring a palette of serene glaze colours and textures, a variety of surfaces to complement the restrained forms. This is always an ongoing process; the thrill of experiment and discovery is one of the greatest rewards in making.

  • Sarus

    Sarus

    SARUS craft leather goods, made entirely by them and by hand in Sussex. Their ethos is that in an age when machines and efficiency dominate it is important to slow down and rekindle the notion of craftsmanship. The result is a timeless product that shows a combination of respect for the raw materials and a passion for the true craft of leatherwork.

  • Sprig Knitwear

    Sprig Knitwear

    Sprig Knitwear is an Artisan knitwear label based in Hampshire. Run by textile designer Antonia Sullivan, since opening in 2015.

    Inspired by childhood adventures, every design has a story told through geometric patterns + textures. Each piece is produced by hand in the studio with 2ply Lambswool.

  • Theo Wright

    Theo Wright

  • Wax Atelier

    Wax Atelier

    Wax Atelier re-visits traditional techniques ranging from candle dipping, paper making, to crafted textiles using natural wax. Making becomes a tool to experience the interconnection between the natural world and material culture.

    WAX Atelier was founded in 2017 by multi-disciplinary designers Lola Lely and Yesenia Thibault-Picazo, in London.